Survey finds local authorities failing to comply with their legal obligations to parent carers/young carers

A survey of over 40% of English social services authorities by the Cerebra Legal Entitlements Research Project at Cardiff Law School has found serious failing in local authority ‘short breaks’ statements that they are under a duty to publish.

Findings included:

Over 90% failed to advise parent carers and young carers of their right to an assessment;

More than 85% gave no clear explanation as to how the amount of support provided is decided;

In excess of 80% failed to explain what families could do if they were dissatisfied with the support they were receiving;

Over 60% failed to mention transport support – to enable the disabled child to attend the short break support;

In more than 50% of cases, it was difficult to locate the actual ‘short break statement’.

The report contains advice on how short breaks statements and local authority websites can be improved – particularly the value of having a logical point to start a search (such as a home page with an entry such as ‘social care’ or ‘carers’) and the need for a national standard ‘template’ for all authorities to use.

The report contains some positive findings and of the authorities surveyed, the report singled out the Isle of Wight as an example of best practice and gave ‘honourable mentions’ to Camden, Hampshire, Liverpool and Cheshire West and Chester.